Rating: NN
If Gold were the first solo album released by Whiskeytown’s Ryan Adams, this collection of mannered stylistic pastiche might be seen as a promising step for a still-developing songwriter struggling to find his own voice. But coming from someone like Adams, who likes to boast about the quantity of songs that gush out of him, the obvious aping of Van Morrison and Gram Parsons is just ridiculous. Sure, there are 21 new compositions on the limited double-disc version of Gold, but so what? We’ve heard them all before. In future, Adams might save himself some embarrassment by hiring a producer as well as an engineer.
